Top Science News and Current Events from July 2017

Climate change expected to increase premature deaths from air pollutionA new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill estimates that future climate change, if left unaddressed, is expected to cause roughly 60,000 deaths globally in the year 2030 and 260,000 deaths in 2100 due to climate change's effect on global air pollution. (2017-07-31)

Women show cognitive advantage in gender-equal countriesWomen's cognitive functioning past middle age may be affected by the degree of gender equality in the country they live in, according to new findings from Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. (2017-07-31)

Internet searches for suicide after '13 Reasons Why'Internet searches about suicide were higher than expected after the release of the Netflix series '13 Reasons Why' about the suicide of a fictional teen that graphically shows the suicide in its finale, according to a new research letter published by JAMA Internal Medicine. (2017-07-31)

New genomics tool CITE-Seq enables large-scale multidimensional analysis of single cellsA new technique developed by scientists at the New York Genome Center (NYGC) represents an important step forward for single-cell RNA sequencing, an advancing field of genomics that provides detailed insights into individual cells and makes it possible to distinguish between different cell types and to study disease mechanisms at the level of individual cells. (2017-07-31)

Skin plays significant role in spread of leishmaniasisScientists at the University of York have discovered that parasites responsible for leishmaniasis -- a globally occurring neglected tropical disease spread by sand flies -- are mainly acquired from the skin rather than a person's blood. (2017-07-05)

The Ottawa hospital emergency surgery studyResearchers at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa have conducted a rigorous study of the health and economic impacts of delays in emergency surgery. (2017-07-10)

How texting can protect babies from sudden deathEducational videos delivered by text or email successfully encouraged new mothers to use safe sleep practices for their babies, reducing the risk of sudden unexpected infant death, a new study has found. (2017-07-25)

Computers using linguistic clues to deduce photo contentScientists at Disney Research and the University of California, Davis have found that the way a person describes the content of a photo can provide important clues for computer vision programs to determine where various things appear in the image. (2017-07-21)

Food scientists find cranberries may aid the gut microbiomeMany scientists are paying new attention to prebiotics, that is, molecules we eat but cannot digest, because some may promote the growth and health of beneficial microorganisms in our intestines, says nutritional microbiologist David Sela at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. (2017-07-10)

Best Science Podcasts 2018

Inspire To ActionWhat motivates us to take up a cause, follow a leader, or create change? This hour, TED speakers explore stories of inspirational leadership, and what makes some movements more successful than others. Guests include high school history teacher Diane Wolk-Rogers, writer and behavioral researcher Simon Sinek, 2016 Icelandic presidential candidate Halla TÃ³masdÃ³ttir, professor of leadership Jochen Menges, and writer and activist Naomi Klein.

#474 Appearance MattersThis week we talk about appearance, bodies, and body image. Why does what we look like affect our headspace so much? And how do we even begin to research a topic as personal and subjective as body image? To try and find out, we speak with some of the researchers at the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR) at the University of the West of England in Bristol. Psychology Professor Phillippa Diedrichs walks us through body image research, what we know so far, and how we know what we know. Professor of Appearance and Health Psychology Diana Harcourt talks about visible...